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MICHAEL:

In tonight’s episode of “MVP,” the Mustangs hockey team goes on the road and all hell breaks loose when Trevor goes wild with the “ Puckbunnies”! It seems like viewers have slowly been watching Trevor’s turn to the dark side. I actually think it started with him driving the Escalade through the car dealership storefront? Do you think that was the turning point?

DILLON:

After the incident when I drive off in the Escalade, there is a moment in episode six that you don’t really expect of a guy like Trevor, but he does it anyway. He finally hooks up with Molly.

MICHAEL:

But, you enjoyed that episode?

DILLON:

Yes. That was a great episode. The thing about it was, it was all improvised. They didn’t really want me to drive through the window. I did that and they happened to catch it on camera! (He laughs) The thing about Trevor is, in previous episodes, when you watch him; he is getting pulled in all these different directions. He pretty much is letting people take full advantage of him and you don’t understand why. He is just this guy who wants to please everybody, and finally, he has had enough. He is tired of doing what everyone else expects of him, and he finally has enough. They want him to buy a Mustang and he says, “I’m not buying a Mustang.” So, he gets in the car and pulls out of the dealership window, and the sales guy makes a racial slur to him, and that was the icing on the cake.

MICHAEL:

Now, you had highlights in your hair that you were cutting off in the mirror because your character was getting fed up. That was shortly before driving the Escalade through the dealership storefront. It seems Trevor may need some anger-management! But, how did the hair highlights come about in the storyline?

DILLON:

What we did in that episode was my agent wanted to give Trevor a makeover… to give Trevor more of a media friendly image. They had him doing the underwear ad, which he did, and that did not end up turning out so well. Well, I guess it did. (He laughs) Basically, his agent catches him off guard and tells him. “We have a cereal company and it’s going to be great.” You know, Trevor is this kid from Loon Lake, and in the morning he is the kind of guy that throws on whatever is in front of him, and he never has really had to think about how he gels his hair. He has a sort of ‘get up and go’ mentality, and all of a sudden, he has this agent telling him how to dress, how to talk to people, and what to do with his hair. There is a part of him that knows that something is up, especially when he walks into the locker room in a suit. “Team Trevor” put the highlights in his hair. I did not dye my hair in real-life. They put in extensions and blonde clips, and red clips.

MICHAEL:

So you don’t like colorful extensions?

DILLON:

It’s not really my style. That’s kind of the point. They were supposed to look ridiculous. It was funny!

MICHAEL:

Was it fun to take Trevor to the dark side?

DILLON:

I always looked at Trevor as a guy who is between Gabe and Damon. I would look at Peter Miller’s character of Damon and think that is the most fun character to play on the show. The bad guy is always the most fun. When Trevor goes to the dark side I get to be more like Damon Trebuchet. So, the scenes were a lot of fun in episode 7. My favorite scene coming up has Damon and Trevor partying. At this point, Trevor has decided to become Damon. He goes to Lagoon, which is the “MVP” version of the Playboy Mansion, and it’s no holds barred for Trevor. He is just a kid in a candy store. He is a young Damon Trebuchet, by this point.

MICHAEL:

Moving forward, will Trevor Lamonde fans get to see their young hockey superstar redeemed?

DILLON:

Again, I can’t give that all away, but I can tell you there is an arc to the character and he does do a lot of things that he regrets, and it’s a turning point. There is a strong one coming up that is very interesting to see!

MICHAEL:

What are Trevor’s true feelings about the girls in his life, Molly and Tabbi?

DILLON:

Tabbi is the girl that he loved. She is his first love. She is the girl he grew up with in Loon Lake; she was there before all the fame and distraction. When Trevor gets out there into this world, there is all this temptation, and of course, the number one temptation that is out there is Molly. Molly is Trevor’s sort of ‘fatal attraction’.

MICHAEL:

She is so obvious in her seduction of Trevor, though!

DILLON:

She is so obvious, and she is so good-looking, that what guy wouldn’t like being charmed by a girl like Molly. So Trevor is not fighting it. He is also young and naïve about things like that. Then, Tabbi shows up with her Nana. Trevor is just trying to be a young kid experiencing all his success, and his girlfriend shows up with her grandma. He feels it’s preventing him from what he wants to do. There is a backlash to that. However, cheating on Tabbi with Molly was not a good call, by any means. The audience should not let Trevor off the hook for that one. When it comes to Molly, I think it was wrong that she was all over him, and Trevor just didn’t know what to do.

MICHAEL:

How was working with Natalie Krill, who plays Molly, and Anastasia Phillips, who plays Tabbi?

DILLON:

I would always hit on them relentlessly, but they both had boyfriends. It was great! We were all really great friends, and it was funny to know that Anastasia, who played Tabbi, and I found out we had a lot of friends that we both went to university with. So, we had a lot in common with mutual connections. We were immediate friends. Natalie and I had the same sense of humor. We got along really well, and all of it was good. Everybody on the set got along so well, and that is one of the saddest reasons for it being cancelled, because we were all such good friends. It was sad to think that we would not all hang out again.

MICHAEL:

Was there a scene or moment when you thought, “I was really good in this,” or one that you’re most fond of?

DILLON:

Literally, my favorite is a minute or two long scene where I silently sit there and stare at women in episode seven. It was my favorite scene and it came very natural for me (He laughs). There was another great scene with Peter Miller, where we are partying really hard, and it was a lot of fun because they did not yell, “cut”. We just finished and improvised for an extra two or three minutes, and it was so funny!

MICHAEL:

We hear you are working and studying with the famed comedy improv group, Second City, up in Toronto. Is that true?

DILLON:

I am doing the Second City conservatory. Comedy is my number one passion, and where I would like to go. I love doing Second City. It’s so much fun! I have been doing it for two years, and so have my brothers. There is a big improv scene in Toronto, and it’s so much fun and such a rush.

MICHAEL:

Was it hard to play the country bumpkin that Trevor was, to turning into the guy seduced by power, women and money?

DILLON:

You know what I found difficult was when I would think, “Why would anybody in their right mind let anybody do this to them, and take advantage of them in this way?” But, I guess for anyone from a small town going to a big city, things start to happen. Pulling off the character was a lot of fun. It was fun having such opposites on the show. The guy coming from the small town, and then having the guy have everything, was not hard to do.

MICHAEL:

Now, being the half-naked poster boy in Times Square on the billboard, and with all the SOAPnet promos, how is that experience for you? You’re half-naked in your underwear, so what were your thoughts?

DILLON:

First of all, I am way more than half-naked! When we took those pictures I did not know they were going to be on a billboard at all. I got a phone call that said, “We just want to run this by you, that you are going to be on a billboard we are printing and it’s going to be in Times Square. I went, “Oh, oh, well that’s cool. I did not know how to respond. Then, people were calling me asking if I was going to go down and see it. Then my dad really wanted to go, so we went down to New York City, and we told SOAPnet we were going, and they brought the camera out. I did not know how I was going to react. I did not know if I was going to see the billboard and be overly excited and go nuts. It wasn’t really that. I looked at it and I was happy, and it was really cool. It was surreal, if anything.

MICHAEL:

So, I’m sure what’s come out of that is, you are now on “The Sexiest Men list”, all over the world, and a sex symbol to people. How does that feel?

DILLON:

What’s strange is a lot of this has happened so fast. This whole thought of being a celebrity doesn’t exist as powerfully in Toronto, as it does in LA. There is definitely a sense of it. If I am talking to somebody and they are not really saying anything, and there is not a lot of eye contact, they will go, “Why is your friend being such a jerk to me?” And my friends say to me, “Dude, they are nervous talking to you!” I don’t think of myself in that way, but it takes my brothers or my friends to point it out to me. People that recognize me the most are other actors. They will come up to me and say, “Hey, congratulations on the show. I have never seen a show like that come out of Canada.” That’s really good to hear. The billboard itself is also great Second City material, for them to make fun of me. Just like after a class or show, people will want to go to a bar and I will go, “How about this bar?” And they will always joke, “Oh, just because he is on a billboard in Times Square we have to go to that bar!” OK, ‘Mr. Celebrity and Mr. Times Square’. Overall, I would not say my life has changed.

MICHAEL:

Is it true that in the audition a lot of guys had to take off their clothes or their shirts, or something?

DILLON:

Well, I don’t know what anybody else had to do. My first audition was a regular audition where I had to do some lines, and felt pretty good about it. Then, I got a call from my agent saying that I needed to go back to the auditions. So, I went back and the directors and the casting directors were there. I did what I did before in the other scene, and then they go, “OK. Now that was great, but now we are going to do another scene where your character is asked to do an underwear ad, and have these pictures taken of him, where he screams like an animal at the end.” So I was like, “OK, that sounds good.” They go, “No, no, you have to take your shirt off. This is an underwear ad.” I go, “OK. I guess I will do that.” I had to for my callback. So, the way I got the part was taking my shirt off and screaming, and they gave me the part.

MICHAEL:

To be in shape like you are, how often do you work out?

DILLON:

I go there five times a week. I grew up in competitive sports. I was a tennis player and quit that when I was 10 years old. I was a member of a gym, and I am a pretty anxious guy. So, I started going to the gym after I stopped playing tennis. With all this extra energy it just became a habit.

MICHAEL:

So, since “MVP” centers around hockey, and Canada is famous for it, are you a hockey buff in real life?

DILLON:

To be honest, I am one of those guys that when the playoffs are on, and if Toronto or Montreal is in the play-offs, I will watch. But, I don’t really care that much and I am not ashamed to admit it. All my friends love it. To be honest, I think there is too much of it up here. I wish Canada would pay attention to some of its other athletes, because there is no reason we should not have amazing tennis and baseball players. I love hockey and I love how Canadians love it, but we are a big country and there should be more variety here.

MICHAEL:

What would people be most surprised to know about you, that they wouldn’t expect from a guy like you?

DILLON:

I think, Second City. I have a production company with my brothers and we have two series in development now in Canada. We are all writers and producers, and also I think what surprises most people is that I have a Masters Degree in Economics. That is surprising to me. (He laughs) So, that is why I think it would surprise most people.

MICHAEL:

What made you go into acting?

DILLON:

The bigger question is what made me get my Masters in Economics? Acting was actually a fallback if this ‘economics’ thing didn’t’ work out. It was in my third year at the university that I realized I liked acting. I applied for my Masters, and then I went to audition in Toronto. I landed a big job in a show during exam time in April called, “Eleven Cameras” and it was my first big role. Then, that put me in the position that I could audition for anything in Toronto. Right after that, I auditioned for “MVP” and I got the part of Trevor Lamonde. Since then, I have been acting full time as much as I can. There are ups and downs with whether you are working. It’s either a lot or not at all.

MICHAEL:

Would you consider a move to Los Angeles at this point, or are you planning on staying in Canada right now?

DILLON:

I have duel citizenship to the States and Canada. So, I definitely will be moving to Los Angeles at some point. Right now the plan is October. I was planning on going down this year, but there was the writer’s strike and that was pretty bad, and there was an earthquake today in LA, so I knew it wasn’t the right time for it to happen. (He laughs) But October seems like a great time.

Don’t miss episode seven, “the Code, on “MVP” tonight on SOAPnet, Thursday July 31st at 11 PM ET/PT! And keep up with “MVP” by logging onto www.soapnet.com. “He Shoots … She Scores!”